The Last Mermaid

art by DollDivine.com
The Last Mermaid

by Rebecca Fyfe

I was never lonely, despite being the last of my kind. I had the dolphins, the whales, the octopuses, the seals and the sea lions to keep me company. I often took turns spending months at a time with different colonies or pods.

I never even wondered about my lone existence until the day the seahorse asked me about the others.  He asked me why I had never gone looking for them. I couldn't answer him then, but I realized, when I had time to think about it, that, as I had no memory of the others, I had just grown up believing that I'd always been the only one of my kind. It had never occurred to me that there might be others like me.

The sea horse told me that he'd heard stories, stories about the Sea Witch imprisoning all of merkind with a spell many years ago.

I asked him where I could find the Sea Witch and he told me she lived in the deepest, darkest part of the ocean, in an underwater cave in the center of a maze of tunnels.

"No one who enters the Sea Witch's caves ever comes out again," he warned.

I shrugged off his warning. The idea that there might be others like me filled me with too much excitement to let the idea go without doing something to find them.

And that is how I found myself lost in a tunnel leading to a cave in the deepest, darkest part of the sea. I couldn't see much, even though I had brought some crystal jellyfish in a sack. Every now and then I would release one so that the glow from it could light my way. I got lost in the maze of tunnels, but when I was almost out of crystal jellies and starting to feel like it was a lost cause, I finally found the center of the Sea Witch's cave.

The Sea Witch was there. She almost looked like one of us, except that, where my scales were colorful and reflected light and sparkle, her scales were black and dull. Where my skin was smooth and naturally sun-kissed from my time near the surface, hers was as pale as a corpse. Where my eyes were vivid and a bright green, hers were so black from edge to edge. Where my hair was long and carried a variety of shades form copper to gold to brown, hers was short, grey and dull. It had no shine. She looked like a dead thing, pretending to be of merkind.

The Sea Witch turned to me, "A mermaid. I thought I'd imprisoned all of you. It seems I missed one."

"Why did you imprison the others?" I asked, keeping my distance from her.

"Oh, they were always meddling and getting in my way. They tried to keep me from my magic, kept complaining that it was evil, that I shouldn't harm others. I got tired of always having to answer to them, so I got made sure they couldn't complain anymore."

"Where are they?" I asked. I couldn't help thinking that if she could imprison all of the mermaids at one time, then she might just as easily rid herself of me.

"I'll tell you what, little mermaid; since you are the last, I will release the others if you can figure out where they are in this room."

I looked around the room. There was a lot of junk in the room; it was as if the Sea Witch liked collecting a variety of different things, none of it which seemed to go together. There were jars of ointments, all stoppered up to keep the sea water out of them, and different kinds of sea weed growing in oddly shaped wood containers. The wood looked like it was made from driftwood. There were baubles and trinkets of all kinds.

One necklace, in particular, drew my attention. It looked like glass with the color and texture of sea foam. I remembered someone's voice telling me a story, so long ago I couldn't remember a face to go with the voice. The story had said that all mermaids were created out of sea foam.

Was that what she had done? Turned the others all back into sea foam and trapped them in the glass of the necklace? Nothing else in the room triggered any hidden memories for me, and I had no way of being certain, but I had to try.

"Is it this necklace?" I asked, lifting the necklace to show her.

"No, how could you? You couldn't have figured it out!" The sea witch flew into a rage. The nails on her fingers grew into claws and she swam at me at full speed, reaching out to carve me with her claws. I grabbed the closest thing to me, which turned out to be a piece of stone broken off from a statue of some sort. As she threw herself at me, I jammed the sharpened shard of stone into her chest. Her claws rakes at my shoulder, piercing the skin. I cried out in pain, but the Sea Witch had stopped moving. I pulled the stone out from her chest and she slumped to, floating aimlessly in the water, blood spreading through the water around her.

She was dead, but the other mermaids were still not free. I didn't know what else to do, so I decided to put the necklace on and find some other sea creatures to ask if they knew what I could do to free the mermaids. As soon as the necklace touched my skin, it began to glow. The glass melted away from it and the sea foam drifted up into the water. Before a question could form in my mind, the different parts of the sea foam began to change shape and hundreds of merpeople stood before me, so many that their numbers were spread out into the tunnels.

I was no longer the last mermaid.

A Mermaid's Treasure

art by DollDivine.com

A Mermaid's Treasure
by Rebecca Fyfe

Sandy loved exploring those old, sunken ships. She swished her tail, giving herself a burst of speed that pushed her through the water to the stern of the ship. She couldn't help wondering what it would have been like to have been a sailor and sailed over the water on a ship that cut through the waves, to feel the wind on her face. As a mermaid, she had no choice but to live in the sea. She could breathe out of water, but her fins and the scales of her tail would dry out if she didn't keep them immersed in sea water. She might be okay for a little while out of water, but not for long.

Sandy had done enough imagining; it always made her sad to think of what she couldn't do. She loved adventures and to spend time on land, to her, sounded like the greatest adventure of all. She swam below the deck on the ship to do some more exploring. After looking through some of the rooms in the lower decks, she became a little depressed. Many had died on this ship, their bones the only testament to the fact that not many had escaped a watery death when this ship had gone down.

The signs of death did not keep her from her explorations, and she soon found herself up on the first class level of the ship. She knew about these things because she had seen the difference between the two, from bare rooms with thin mattresses to lavish furnishing in abundantly sized rooms, it was obvious that some people were treated better than others on these ships than others.

In one of the first class rooms, Sandy found a funny metal box. It was medium sized and had a lock on the outside holding it closed, but the lock was rusted through. Sandy pulled the lock off the metal box. A combination of the rust and her mermaid strength made it an easy task.

Inside, she found a beautiful purple and blue bracelet. The beads were slightly transparent and sparked in the water. She slipped it on her wrist and immediately felt the magic it contained spread through her body. As soon as the magic spread through her, like a warm blanket being spread over her, she felt an urgent need to rise to the surface and swim towards the nearest shore.

Once at the shore, she kept swimming until she was laying on the beach with only the gentle waves lapping against her fluke. She still felt the magic and as a new surge of it spread through her, it was as if it washed away her scales and tail and turned them into legs. She had a human body. She knew instinctively that it was not a permanent change; once she took the magic bracelet off, she'd be a mermaid again.

Sandy looked back at the ocean. It called to her; it was where she belonged.

But adventures awaited her. She stood on shaky legs and walked away from the sea and towards the adventures she had always dreamed of having.

The Mermaids of Atlantis

Art by DollDivine.com

The Mermaids of Atlantis
by Rebecca Fyfe

Atlantis was once a prosperous city in ancient times, one known far and wide for its culture and art. It wasn't until the city was attacked that Atlantis disappeared from human eyes forever, hidden deep under the sea.

The attack came by men form over the sea. They came by ship and murdered and pillaged until the city's population had fallen from thousands to not even one hundred people. Most of the men were killed, though a few remained alive. The majority of those who survived were women and children, but the murderous barbarians who came from across the sea had no intentions of letting any of them live free.

Before they could be taken as slaves, the women, as one, all fell to their knees and prayed to Poseidon to save them Poseidon was the god worshipped in Atlantis, and the women of Atlantis had always been his most faithful followers.

As they prayed, a great wave surged forward and swallowed up Atlantis. No one could escape the rushing waters and those who tried to pillage the city were swept away to drown at sea.

But the women who had stead-fastly remained faithful to their god Poseidon did not drown when the waters closed over them. Instead, they were given the tails of fish and the ability to breathe under the sea. The few men left and the children of Atlantis were also given these gifts.

To this day, the people of Atlantis still live in their city, ruling a new, underwater civilization. Their children and their children's children have repopulated the great city and, due to their new found longevity, for every mermaid of Atlantis lived for thousands of years, they have a rich oral history which they pass down to their offspring so that every child knows who to thank for their fortunate existence.

Atlantis is still a land of art and culture, music and storytelling, but no human has ever been able to find Atlantis for themselves.

Tigerlily, the Rebel Muse

This story was originally written on April 30th, but it was the second story written that day and I neglected to add a story on the 23rd of April, so in keeping with my goal of writing one mermaid story per day in the month of April, I am post-dating this story to April 23rd.

art by DollDivine.com

Tigerlily, the Rebel Muse

by Rebecca Fyfe

Tigerlily was a muse. She had the form of a mermaid and the coloring of a tiger. She lived in the ocean, but she had the magic of her voice to inspire people with. It was her job to sing to the right people. She didn't have to be near them, only to picture them in her mind when she sang. Her voice's magic would take care of the rest, delivering inspiration and ideas to musicians, artists and writers when needed.

If you look up the names of the muses, you won't find Tigerlily's name listed. That's because she never wanted to be a muse. She wanted to be a storyteller. When she sang her songs, she never knew what story or art or music would be delivered to her charges, only that they would find inspiration. Inspiration was sent to humans only, so none of the other muses, mermaids all, ever created anything. But that meant that, aside from her magical songs, Tigerlily never got to hear music, or read stories or even see a beautiful piece of art.

Tigerlily wanted to hear, read and see all of it, and she wanted to create her own. In her heart, stories burned, waiting to be written down, but how could a mermaid write anything? Paper wouldn't last underwater; the water would soak it through.

Tigerlily wasn't like the other muses though; inspiration often came to her. And, because of this, figuring out how to write her stories down was no problem for her. She found some bottles that had been used to litter the ocean and some cork, also litter just left floating in the ocean. She took the bottles and the cork and swam to one of the rocky outcroppings form the shore. She crawled up and hid the bottles and the cork away in the crevice between two rocks, somewhere where no one would find them and where the water wouldn't reach.

She knew where some old shipwrecks lay at the bottom of the sea and, using broken bits of seashells, she cut away the ropes holding the sails. She took the cloth of the sails and added them to her hiding spot in the rocks. A floating seagull feather was added next to her collection. She waited many days for all of her finds to dry out. Then she grabbed a squid as it swam by.

By squeezing the squid gently, some of the squids ink ejected into an empty shell she had brought with her. She used the seagull feather and dipped it into the ink and started writing her stories on the cloth from the sails.

For each story she wrote, she would sign her name, tear off the piece of cloth with the story and put it into one of the bottles. Then she would seal up the bottle using the corks. She made sure no water could get into the bottles, and then she set the bottles into the sea, hoping they would float to shore for humans to find and read.

Mermaid muses live for thousands of years. To this day, the rebel muse Tigerlily is writing her stories and then setting them free. Maybe you have read something by her.

Daughters of Poseidon

This is the mythology behind a series of novels I am writing. The series is called "Daughters of Poseidon" and the first book is, currently, called "Siren Song." The title is only a working title though and might change before publication of the first book in the series. (This mythology was written on April 22nd, 2014, but is being posted retrospectively (back-dated) on April 14th, to take the place of the story I did not manage to write on that day. I am trying to have one story posted for every day in April.) The Daughters of Poseidon has a Facebook page, where you can find updates and excerpts from the series as it is created. If you are interested in learning more about the series, please go and "like" the Daughters of Poseidon Facebook page.

Daughters of Poseidon

by Rebecca Fyfe

Poseidon, the god of the sea, had nine daughters. His daughters were allowed to marry anyone they chose, and eight of the nine chose human men to marry, shucking their mermaid forms and taking on human forms so that they could assimilate into the human world.

As the centuries passed, their children had children and much of their sea magic was diluted through the generations. A legend foretold that each of the eight who had entered the human world would someday have an heir, many generations removed from them, with the genes for sea magic, even stronger than the sea magic that the original daughters possessed. Their powers would be asleep until Poseidon chose to awaken them when he had need of them.

Their powers are awakened when the ocean was in great need. The ocean is dying, and if the ocean dies, the world will die with it. Each of these new daughters of Poseidon are gifted with different powers and reside in different parts of the world. They will each face different trials, but after each one has passed her trial, they will all be brought together for a much more dangerous mission.

The ninth original daughter, the one who stayed in mermaid form, became resentful of her sisters once they had left for the human world and she instills this resentment in each of the generations after her. No one knows if the ninth new daughter of Poseidon will help or hinder the eight in their quest to save the world.

The fate of the world rests on these nine daughters of Poseidon.

A Siren's Capture

picture by DollDivine.com

A Siren's Capture

by Rebecca Fyfe

Sirena's heart beat sped up as the ship came into sight. She and her sisters had been waiting for a ship to appear for months now. It had been so quiet here. Drowning their first sailor was a rite of passage for all sirens that announced their passage from childhood to adulthood, and Sirena had waited so long with her sisters. She was one of triplets and all three of them had been waiting for this day; the day when they became full-grown sirens and started being treated like adults. They'd been waiting 15 years for this, and then they had to wait an additional three months for a ship to appear in their bay.

Sirena's two sisters, Coral and Marina started singing, the spell from their enchantment woven into the threads of their song and weaving its way to the ship and its unsuspecting sailors. Sirena knew she should start singing too, but she wanted to see what the sailors were like without the enchantment pulling at them. Coral and Mina's songs were only strong enough to enchant one or two men at a time, so there would still be some men unaffected on the ship.

She'd seen men before, but always under the spell of one of the sirens in her colony. Once under enchantment, the men had no mind of their own, ruled only by the enchantment that urged them to follow their siren enchantress at all costs. And they only lasted moments before sea water filled their lungs and death claimed them. Curiosity made Sirena wanted to find out more about these men before her enchantment pulled them under.

Sirena swam closer to the ship, her long tail and fluke making her movements swift and graceful as she glided smoothly up to the side of the ship. She heard voices. There were men on the ship moving towards the stern. She could tell from their faces that they were already under her sisters' spells. There were five of them, Sirena noted, so one of her sisters' enchanted singing was particularly powerful. None of the other men working on the ship had noticed the five men moving ever closer to the edge of the ship. A young man was pulling up a fishing net, his strong arms making short work of it. She was close enough that she knew he was within range of one of her sisters' songs, but he didn't seem to be affected  by it.
 Interesting, Sirena thought. He obviously can hear her singing but remains unaffected by it.

She watched him for a while. When he finished his work, he moved to help some of the other men with theirs. He was quick to smile at the others, but he never said a word. At times, she saw him motioning with his hands and the men would motion back with their hands. She wondered what it meant that he never spoke and seemed to communicate through his hands instead. She found that she was having trouble taking her eyes off of him. She was watching him so closely that she had forgotten to take care not to be seen.

A shout rang out and Sirena felt a net drop over her. The more she struggled, frantic to free herself, the more trapped in the net she became. It felt like only moments had passed before she could feel herself and the net being hauled onto the ship. She stilled herself. She'd heard horror stories of what happened to her kind when caught by fishermen.

She landed with a thud on the deck of the ship, still tangled helplessly in the fishing net. I can enchant them, Sirena thought, quickly trying to come up with a plan for escape. It will work on one or two of them and that might be enough to break free and slip back over the side. the men were shouting back and forth to one another, excited with their unusual catch, so she sang as loud as she could.

Her song began to weave its way around the men. One man, then two, then a third feel under her spell. She looked at the man she had been watching for so long. He wasn't under her spell, but he'd noticed the slack-jawed look that had fallen over the others. Sirena continued to sing. A fourth man fell under her spell. Then a fifth. As far as she knew, no siren had ever enchanted so many men at once.

The five under her spell moved towards her and started removing the net from around her. She smiled at them and kept singing, but more men were coming. The one man seemed to remain immune, but he didn't try and stop the others from freeing her. He just watched, a suspicious expression on his face.

She struggled to move herself to the edge of the boat, but her fins were ungainly and clumsy out of the water. Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around her and lifted her. She turned, still singing, to see who held her and it was the man she had been so entranced by. He carried her to the edge of the ship.

Sirena looked into his eyes and risked the song ending for a moment. "Thank you," she said, still looking deeply into his eyes.

He gave her a quick nod in acknowledgment and helped her over the side. She looked back at him once more and swam away.

She wouldn't be drowning a sailor today, but then, Sirena wasn't sure she ever wanted to drown a sailor, even if it meant never being considered an adult.

When she joined her sisters, she found that she didn't need to drown a sailor. Everyone from her colony had come to her rescue. When her sisters had noticed her capture, they'd released their own sailors from their spells in order to swim for help. Everyone had arrived in time to see her enchant five sailors, more than any siren before her had been capable of doing.

The whole colony was celebrating that night, not just in thanks for her powerful song but for her safe return.